Aside from a few bits of backtracking where certain airports or cities don't connect very well with others, I should be able to complete my route in a fairly straight-forward way. Ten years on from now, I'm sure this will be much the same, although perhaps there will be increased access to certain countries and cities using a combination of planes, trains and auto-mobiles.
Tourism obviously dictates a great proportion of my ability to get from one place to the next; both domestically and internationally. I think that is a huge difference from ten years ago, as maybe planes were more commonly used by tourists flying in from outside of the country, but I've noticed on a lot of my internal flights that a lot of the people are natives whose travel plans are made much easier without them having to use a car or a bus to travel everywhere.
Today was going to be another one of those travel-heavy days for me, as my time in Indonesia was up, and I was heading to my next destination which was Malaysia.
Before my plans changed slightly, I was going to be heading to Singapore in between, but I decided to try to streamline my route as much as possible and therefore the Lion City was cut out considering I'd spent about a month there in the summer of 2012. I figured I'd pretty much accomplished everything I needed to do there during my previous trip and it gives me some extra time to spend in new locations around the continent.
It did mean, however, that I was going to have to transit through Singapore, as having already booked a flight there, I was going to make the most of my advanced, but now unnecessary planning by using it as a way to get me into Malaysia and my first destination which is Melaka.
I left the CitiResidence hotel at about 7am this morning, and stepped outside to the most glorious sunny day. I guess that's the best time to be outside in Jakarta as the haze of pollution hasn't had time to build back up as yet. My journey was going to be the reverse of the one I made on Friday with a bus ride from Gambir back to the airport in order to fly to Singapore.
It took about twenty minutes or so to walk back to the bus terminal where I found a row of buses, and seemed to time it perfectly as one was just about to leave to travel back to the airport. I'd read online that the service can be somewhat unreliable due to the constant traffic of the Indonesian capital, but contrary to the information provided to me on the Internet the journey took about 40 minutes (as opposed to almost two hours on Friday) and for once, I was at the airport well ahead of schedule. Due to my early arrival, I wasn't able to check-in straight away, but once the desks were open, I deposited my bag, and spent some time look through a few of the shops - primarily so I could change some money and also buy myself a drink.
Being in Singapore for what I hoped would be less than two hours, I changed some of my remaining Rupiah into Singapore dollars and eventually ended up boarding my flight at about 10:50am. Everything went smoothly as we took off on time and arrived into the airport about twenty-five minutes ahead of schedule. For once being early wasn't a problem with me as I needed as much time as possible in case there were any delays. My plan was to get across the border to Malaysia on the bus and then from the main bus terminal take the three to four hour journey to Melaka where I am staying for a couple of nights.
I asked someone at the information desk to suggest the best way to go about my journey as I'd read about five or six different alternatives online. The guy I spoke to said that there was a bus about to leave so I quickly got to the 2:15pm bus before it was about to depart.
It was essentially a bus just full of passengers wanting to go from the airport into the first town in Malaysia which is Johor Baru (JB). When I was in Singapore almost three years ago, I spent a day in JB which is naturally quite a popular place with foreigners of all kinds as, a bit like Singapore itself, it is a popular transit hub to other destinations.
It took the bus about an hour to get to the Woodlands terminal in the northern part of Singapore, and along the way it was a nice trip down memory lane as I reflected on the time I had spent, and mostly enjoyed there.
Many people consider it to be quite a sterile place without a real character to speak of, but the bits of Singapore I visited, all had their own unique elements of Asian society contained within them.
One thing that makes a huge difference here compared with other parts of Asia is that Singapore is a very clean country. It was one thing I noticed as we were driving along is that the roads, paths, and parks are all immaculate. It is a country very proud of itself and I know that the police have the power to hand out fines to people who litter, smoke in public places and even chew chewing gum.
In a way I am disappointed not to be spending any time here on this trip, but I feel like once the memories start to fade from my last visit, I will be more than happy to return; there's lots to see and do, and I feel like I definitely could have filled a couple of days with tourist activities.
Crossing the border in a coach, rather than arriving at immigration after disembarking an airport makes things a little different than the rest of my journey. You board the bus to the Woodlands terminal of Singapore where you have to go through customs just as you would do in the airport. They stamp your passport (like usual) to say you have left the country, before getting back on the bus to drive across the imposing Johor Causeway. You used to be able to walk across the border, but about five or six years ago they ended this process which is disappointing because I feel like it would be a liberating experience walking across from one country to another.
Once you're back on the bus, you travel for a couple of minutes across the 'no mans land' between the two countries, and then had to get back off, go through immigration at the other side and then return to the bus. Most of the buses stop here unless they are destined for central JB and it was at this point that I got off and waited at the terminal to head to Larkin, which is the other main bus station in the city.
It took about ten minutes for the bus to arrive, and once there I was on the lookout for the first bus which was travelling to Melaka.
It was a bit of a meat market in the terminal with touts looking to get people to board their bus, presumably meaning an extra cut of money for them, but it seemed like each one of them was looking to take people to Kuala Lumpur, which is where I will be heading on Wednesday. Even though I wasn't going there they were trying to drum up business for, a couple of people were helpful enough to show me to the right counter, and there was a bus leaving at 5pm so I sat and waited the twenty minutes before eventually being guided to a bus which was heading to the right place.
The journey started fairly slowly as we left JB, presumably because of the rush-hour traffic, but we were on our way soon enough and after a brief stop in the middle we eventually arrived at Malaka Sentral Terminal at about 8.15pm.
I'm staying what I hope is relatively close to the centre of the city so I hailed a cab to take me to my hotel which got me there in about fifteen minutes.
The rain had been coming down for about the last hour of the journey so it put a bit of a damp look on city of Melaka which supposed to be filled with history; I will be able to confirm or deny this tomorrow!
Checking into my hotel I discovered that once again the wifi signal is God awful - I feel like I have been pretty cursed in the last couple of stops on my trip. I couldn't even manage to find the singular spot in my room where it worked without any issues which is fairly depressing, and not very helpful when it comes to writing a blog. The hotel itself seems nice, though it's hard to tell in the dark what the surrounding area is like.
After my duel stops in Malaysian territory last month, I am hoping that my stay on the peninsular is just as enjoyable. I have four cities lined up to visit in nine days, and I'm hoping that they will be as varied and different as the quartet of places I visited in Indonesia.
So, it has been another long day of travelling - it took just over 14 hours from the moment I left my hotel in Indonesia this morning to walking through my door here in Malaka. In fairness, I'd better get used to being on the move as I am only here for two nights before heading on to Kuala Lumpur. I'm hoping that one full day in the city will allow me to see everything I need to, and make my stay a worthwhile one.
Bring it all Back
S Club (1999)
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